Outdoor Bugs

Pandaland instead of Disneyland. Japan is cancelled, Sichuan China is the next stop.................

2011-03-20T20:48:00.000+08:00

As luck would have it. An earthquake disaster struck Japan. 9.1 magnitude earth quake plus a tsunami that came rolling in after that put everything in the country to chaos. Kinda of a grim reminder of the Banda Acheh Tsunami back a few years ago.

So I had a tough decision to make, go or not go..............with the nuclear meltdown and constant supply shortage of water and basic food. Its was a decision of mine not to add in anymore strain to the country resources. Plus i think its really not nice if people are suffering and your having good time.

So there I was yesterday scrambling mad to cancel my flight with Air Asia and replacing it with a alternative to Chengdu. Peace to u bro Patrick at Air Asia call center Singapore( this guy got my credit shell refund in less than 24 hours ). To be honest i was lost when i decided to cancel my flight before yesterday, i mean come on. The preparation, the anticipation build up to Japan was kinda of a rush for me.

So I did the logical thing which was to streamline what are my options..............10 days to burn, not gonna just waste it like that.........it came down to 2 choices. Option a. Vietnam - a trip from North to South over 10 days. Option b. China - Sichuan over 10 days. Weather wise both was at the right time. Finally decided to settle on China as I still had some CNY leftover from last year's Guilin trip. The only issue now is with my visa. Got to get it done asap.....................

Ready for Japan

2011-03-13T18:12:00.000+08:00

Shit me, i've just realised that i have not been updating my blog for like a year. Things was like so fast in 2010. One minute I was in KL, then moved to Singapore for work. Had to of course go through the whole shit load of exams to get my license to work in Singapore.

Singapore is a really lousy place for outdoors............bottomline, fullstop. I spoke to my colleagues, most kids here don't get to see a walking cow for like most of their growing up years. I'm an adult, when i'm in Malaysia, i get to see it minimum once a week. Well i guess, the reverse is true. Most Malaysians don't get to see 3 or 4 Louis Vuitton store on one stretch of the street. If you're a shopping fan, Singapore is great. Anyway, that's another story.

So anyway, i've been slogging my ass here in Singapore trying to make some moolah. Sacrifice my weekly weekend ritual of the outdoors since July 2010. Honestly i dunno how long i can last with the city life here. Its so boring..........no jungle, no waterfall, no wildlife to observe, I haven't even seen a street rat for like ages. So i figure i better start planning something. Sometime in November last year when Airasia X decided to fly to Japan. I looked at the website and went ahead and booked a trip there. 10 solid days of backpacking. a bit of the city, a bit of the countryside, try to fit a hike in there, highlight of course is the 2011 Tokyo annual fishing show. Cost me like USD 500 for a tickets. Thanks for the great deal Tony (CEO of Airasia). So i really getting excited about it, been surfing religiously on what to do and where to go. Hunting for budget accommodation. Watch this space.....

Kimono clad Geisha

Tokyo drifting with the GT queens...........

Tofu Soup - Restaurant E.P. Hoon, Sg Pelek, Sepang

2009-12-15T21:05:00.004+08:00

Been this restaurant quiet a number of times. Never fail to impress friends and family that i bring here. The food is just delicious. This place is a situated in the small town of Sungai Pelek on the way to Sepang Gold Coast. About 20 kilometres from the Sepang F1 course.
Highlight dishes include
Tofu Kang Soup - Best in the world for me, haven't found any better one
Bee Hoon Noodle and Crabs - Noodles is delicious, nice crunch to the noodle
Teochew Style steam Stingray - damn delicious, will convert the skeptic of stingray
Oor chien - Oyster omellete on hot plate

Restaurant entrance

BeeHoon Noodle with crabs

another pic to salivate

Tofu kang soup

On the left is oyster omellete

Teochew steamed parrot fish, fish was BYO

Fried Calamari, BYO also

Everest Base Camp - Day 2 Kathmandu-Lukla-Phakding

2009-12-14T21:47:00.013+08:00

Day 2 was like get up, shower, brush teeth, pack up and went downstairs of the hotel lobby to wait for our transport to the airport to catch a flight to Lukla and ding, were day 1 on the trek. Everything happened so fast.
Upon reaching the airport, it was a mess. I haven't seen third world country airport for such a long time. Nothing digital at all. The weighing scale was like those used in olden days rice mills. You just stack your luggage and they read it off the scale. Everything was done manually. There was a reason to it. Everyday the power to the entire country will be cut off for 3 hours. The rationale is to let the power generator rest at the National Power Board grid management. I can't imagine how a factory would operate under such circumstances. The thing is the 3 hours of power outage nobody really know when exactly in a day it will happen. Can you imagine running a internet cafe business or if your in an ICU when that happen. So some rich merchants would get their own diesel power generator to continue running the show.

The mess at the airport reminded me of the old interstate bus station at Puduraya, Kuala Lumpur. people shouting for destination, people moving franticly. Basically, your objective is to get on the next available flight despite having booked your ticket. The challenge in getting to Lukla is the weather. There is a window of about 4 hours, usually in the morning. So you make sure you get your ass on board within that window period if weather permit.

The flight to Lukla generally takes about 1 hour give and take due to weather and wind condition. We flew in a twin otter, fokker type plane. Max seating is about 16 pax plus 2 pilot and 1 cabin crew. There needs to be some balancing work done when loading luggage and people on board.

Travel Note 2. Try to get a seat on the left hand side of the plane going to Lukla, on a return get a flight on the right hand side. Only if you want to see the Himalayan range.

We arrived at about 10am at Lukla, small airport, the hanger can accommodate about 4 planes max. The short and inclining landing strip makes it a bit of a hair raising experience. There is a whole group of people gathered at the airport, all waiting to get a piece of the action. Porters, Guides line up waiting for jobs. Looking at this, I understand why Nepal export so many foreign labour to Malaysia. There just too many people with no jobs available. Manufacturing can't take place because of the 3 hours no electricity on a daily basis. So where are people gonna work, anywhere but Nepal of course.

We rendezvous with our pre arranged porter Chabby and Paspati at the Khumbu Lodge. I was amazed at the equipment they use, some ropes and a head gear to shoulder the weight and thats it. No Northface, Deuter stuff.

We had our breakfast at the Lodge. I had a simple Tibetian bread with jam and of course chiya ( Nepali milk tea ). After breakfast, we went on our course to trek to Phakding. estimated about 3 hours away from Lukla. The route decline the proceed to move up and down again. The elevation was in fact lower than Lukla. The weather was nice, towards later in the evening it started to get cold probably in the region of 15c.

The 1st day probably took us about 4-5 hours. We were snapping our camera almost at anything that move. NJ told me, its normal, wait till you get to the 3rd day and you'll start ignoring everything and just walk.

We stayed in this nice Lodge. It was cosy room non the less, warm and nice. Toilet is shared and the kitchen and dining is in a separate building adjacent to our room. We hang around Phakding. Went around the whole village to check out on things. Despite being a small village, it has a pool club and a few small mom and pop convenient store.

Dinner was simple Dhal Bhat ( Rice with curry ). We then had to make selection for our next morning breakfast. I opted for tibetian bread and jam again. We went to bed pretty early cause there wasn't much nightlife.

Window seat

Pilot's cockpit

Village view from sky

Himalaya range

Mountains

OMG!!!! we're landing

Can't believe we just landed on this strip

Tenzing Hillary Airport

Lukla Main Street

Tibetian Bread

Young Porter

Check out the look on NJ's face

The house is a hydro powered milling stone

National Geographic attempt

Undulating countryside

First cable bridge crossing on EBC

another macro Prayer stone

Prayer wheel

Kitchen

Bed at last

Our tea house, check out the washbasin in front

Broga Recreational Fishing Park

2009-12-09T22:45:00.004+08:00

Soya sauced steamed tilapia fish

3 plates at a go

pond view from the restaurant

who's gonna end up on your plate

simple but nice restaurant

salt baked tilapia

It is customary to get yourselves to this place after a nice walk on Broga Hill. This place is situated at a very secluded area near the famous Datuk temple in Broga town. Don't ask me how to get there, i've only been there once but definitely looking forward to a return trip since.

The speciality of this place is the tilapia fish. Cooked in the most imaginary ways you can think of. The list of the menu is running at 10. Asam, steamed, salt baked........ the list goes on. Just pick whatever that rocks your boat.

Do get here early on the weekend as the place gets really pack by mid day and i mean packed despite being so secluded. Regular here told me they had to wait upward of 1 hour to get the food on the table. Its a family run joint. Simple setting and simple food. Kids can watch the owner do fish feeding.

Everest Base Camp - Day 1 Kuala Lumpur - Kathmandu

2009-12-09T21:21:00.007+08:00

Our plane to Nepal

Trishaw in Thamel

Kalapatar Trekking Store

Main Street Thamel

Chilli Momos

Like all major trip, it must always have a drama. It spices up the trip so you have more stories for people. So welcome it. In our case, the flight was delayed for a full 2-3 hours, we were suppose to board at 6am and reach Kathmandu at 10am.

This was a nerve wrecking part cause we intended to spend the afternoon shopping for some last minute gear and suitable clothing for the cold weather up in the mountain.

So we ended up in Kathmandu around 12pm, by the time visa and customs were done, its about 2.30pm, hungry and a bit tired caused most of us got up at about 3am to make it to the airport. We went round to NJ ( our Guide ) office to sort out formality, fill in forms for the National Park permit, paid the money to NJ cause we couldn't be bother with carrying so much cash around.

He took us to the money changer across the road from his office to change our USD to Nepali Rupees and then its SHOPPING time. It was my first trip to Kathmandu. If i had a chance, I'll come again with an empty bag. In Thamel, the backpacker part of town you can get anything climbing, hiking, trekking & outdoor. I was like a kid let loose in the candy shop.

We went to this ultra cheap outlet call Kalapatar Trekking Store. The size of this store is probably 15 feet x 15 feet. I got my outer shell, ski pants and a few pieces of quick dry t-shirt. The whole cost me just under RM 150 ( less than USD 45 ). All north face imitation courtesy of Chaiman Mao's capitalism.

After the shopping bit, we went for our dinner at this local nepali shop specialising in Newari food. We had briyani, dhal bhat, aloo gobi ( cauliflower with potato ), chilli momos - this is good shit if you like spicy stuff. After dinner, we decided to go back to our room and knock off early.

Fishing for Snakehead - No live frog was harmed during this trip

2009-12-07T23:24:00.008+08:00

Last week me and my freshwater fishing buddy decided to explore an abandoned pond next to some duck rearing farm. This place is somewhere near the Selangor Fruit Valley in Rawang.
A month ago, while making attempt to fish for some Patin river catfish, we met some fishermen who did casting and the result was bad. So we thought what the hell, let's not waste time with this place.
Times are bad, river water has been polluted and the catfish are not biting. One of my regular fishing buddy has been incapacitated to serious hiking for fishing by his last major operation. Had some serious blood vessel rupture and almost died. He loves fishing like hell, so we thought lets try this abandoned pond out cause we can park just next to it and unload. Put a bench up for him to fish. Touch wood if he die while fishing, at least he died doing something he like. Life too short to be serious at times
So it was decided that we're gonna load up on chicken liver and earthworm for this trip. My cousin who came back from Bermuda decided to join in on this trip. we caught a few fishes, mostly were juvenile snakehead and featherback. All of them was released back into the pond to grow up more. My cousin caught a decent sized snakehead. Check out the smile on his face

Pond with loads of juvenile snakehead

Soaring Brahmini Kite

Peaceful water holds no fish??

Channa Lucius compared to 1.5 Litre mineral water

A happy fisherman

Huge Monitor Lizard

Lucky its not a muddy route

My fishing lure

The duck farm at the back ground

Another view of the pond

Batu Caves Training

2009-11-15T23:26:00.009+08:00

6.30am dit dit dit dit...........There goes the alarm, time to get up for training

Usually on an uneventful weekend, i normally get up to Batu Caves for some keep in shape and fitness training.

huh............. isn't Batu Caves a temple cave where the hindus do all the body poking stuff at 1 time a year and people go into a trance to give thanks to Lord Murugan.

Yes, yes.............That's the thaipusam festival. I'll post a brief write on Thaipusam later

The 272 steps up to the cave is what i after, how hard can 272 steps be right ? One way ok, Up down 1 round ok, but try challenge yourself and try to do a 5-10 lap of up and down and tell me if you get a workout.

Many people do laps up and down the 272 steps on weekends. Although the place was not intended as a exercise area, the temple priest are generally ok on people doing their walk up and down the stairs

Some unwritten rule that most fitness guys and girl abide by while training here
1. Always give way/priority to devotees performing prayers here. Also forget about helping them up especially children or old folks, its a burden they have to carry by themselves. I've seen people kneel all the way up 272 steps with my own eyes............

2. Observe the no exercise area at cave entrance after the 272 steps

3. Help the temple priest carry stuff up to the temple if you see any, they usually leave bags of it at the start of the 272 steps.

4. Do not feed the monkeys

Benro A-550EX Tripod .............. My new toy

2009-11-14T22:10:00.014+08:00

Unextended pose

Extended pose

I couldn't believe it...................RM 5500 almost went down the drain...........My Canon EOS 400 DLSR + the 18-200mm lens almost went crashing to the floor while photographing the sunset at Mt. Bromor. It was lucky that i always instinctively held on to my camera. It was one of those cheap ass sakure tripod that cause the problem. The plastic mounting snapped in 4 places. Really couldn't believe it

The moment that happen an old chinese saying flashed my mind "You already bought the cow, make sure you get a rope for it". This saying literally means if you already spend a bomb on something make sure you get something worthy to look after it as well. Wise word for the day

The next day watching sunrise at Mt.Penanjakan, i still had to use my broken tripod. I carefully tied in place very crudely and holding the camera on my hand. It was a bummer photo shot and i told myself i had to get my hand on one of those strudy looking tripod once i get back. I immediately threw the entire sakure tripod into a bin just before i left Cemero Lawang.

Upon my return, I did my research based on photography forums, reviews and blogs. It was down to three brands Benro, Manfrotto and Gitzo.

I ended up chosing Benro over the rest due to a few objectives 1.Sturdiness, 2.value for money 3.weight aspect cos i do a lot of travelling. I also did found out from the net that Benro was made in china and built quiet similar to Gitzo's specs. ( Thank God for the Chinese capitalism ). the price is way cheaper than Gitzo. Manfrotto i find is too heavy for me. Fortunately i do not shoot like a professional, else i would settle for a Gitzo which cost a bomb. I only need the travelling tripod for the occassional sunrise and sunset or waterfall shots

I manage to research a place called YL Camera shop just down town in Kuala Lumpur stock the Benro tripod, located in Pudu Plaza on the 1st floor. So i decided to pay a visit there today to get my hand on a Benro tripod. I tried a few model keeping in mind my objectives.

The salesgirl was cool and she help me out in finalising my decision. And finally......
Model : Benro A-550EX ( Black colour )
Price : RM 500

Specs :
4 section
1470mm Max height, 480mm folded
1.45kg weight
Support up to max of 6 kg weight

All objective met, it even came with a bag and strap. So happy to have settled with a decent tripod for my future photography outing. Good thing also,found out the YL shop does trade in, so now i'm planning for my next outdoor toy Vosonic VP8870...................muahahhahaha

Taken with camera resting on it

Size when collapsed

Size when extended

Box bag and tripod

Cool wing nut for locking the height

Extendable and collapsible legs

Balancer checker and compass

Degree dial

Camera locking plate, very solid

Plate fixed on camera

Broga Hill - Semenyih

2009-09-07T22:43:00.004+08:00

After many months of being busy at work (starting at a new place). This is my lost counted attempt to write a blog on my weekend adventure. It was a good weekend hike. I manage to shoot many pictures and try different technique. The plus point was my sifu Yap was ever glad to part with his photography knowledge to me. The climb was short and simple. It was a good break from fishing and just enjoying the morning air.

We started the hike at 6am. It was raining like mad from 1.30am. So the terrain was expected to wet and soggy. The Petronas station where we gathered before the hike was packed mad by the group organise by Peter with about 30 hikers. Some of these guys i've met and some were new faces. We exchange jokes and say our hello and we proceeded to drive to the plantation where we would park our car and start the hike.

Honestly, i didn't know what to expect as i am a virgin on this mountain despite it being so near the city. Some season guys who been here told me, 'its a piece of cake' 45 minutes tops to the peak. We trekked through a plantation for about 10 minutes before we reached the base of the hill for the climb. Needless to say, it was a walk in the park for me. Good warm up after being out of action from hiking for almost a few months. The last serious hike I had was Gunung Datuk. Took me about 40 minutes to the peak. This hill has 3 peaks. The view from these peaks are pretty much the same as they are actually on the same ridge line. We hanged around the peak 2 and decided not to head to peak 3 due to the heavy traffic. I was glad as I caught with many old climbing buddies and was busy having snack and drinks with them.

The scenery was beautiful with the fogs on the background. Some people was complaining that we can't see the sunrise due to the overcast weather. I beg to differ. Different weather gives different lighting background thus create different scenery. In my next post i'll attach some photos i've taken with the overcast weather.

We got down after spending about an hour on peak 2. The downhill trip took us only 30 minutes. I decided to trek down slowly as the entire track was muddy and slippery. Back at the carpark, we got into our car and changed and headed towards Broga town for our breakfast.

Everest Base Camp - Prelude

2009-04-22T00:20:00.011+08:00

Finally after a delay of about 1 year, i decided to write an blog article about my Nepal trekking experience. Majestic, breathtaking and definitely must do before you die is how i would summarise the whole experience. You'll probably end up looking at mountain differently.
Took us about 2 years to plan the logistic, arrange for the guide, research, getting the right gear and saving up cause our exchange rate is just a laughing stock for the rest of the world. RM 3.45 vs USD 1.

Travel tip 1. You try to pay everything in Nepal Rupees cause its cheaper, Most majors like USD, EUR, GBP is widely accepted as well. MYR is accepted for currency exchange in major cities like Kathmandu. Try to change in bulk if you're travelling in a group. You can negotiate very good rates. Carry heaps of smaller denominated USD. Don't make a joke of yourself by paying for a coke with USD 50.

There was plenty of drama a few weeks leading to the trip.
1. Thai Airways decided to hike their rates for Kathmandu at the last minute, so we were stuck with Nepal Airlines, damn will sure miss those hot assed thai airway stewardess

2. Wendy got pregnant with baby Cadence, so she's not gonna make it for this trip. Cadence if you're old enuf to read and this blog and this blog still kickin. Make a comment and say thanks to your mom.........so we're down to 5 headcount

3. USD exchange rate hit RM 3.20, we were laughing cause it came down from RM 3.80, bonus payday would have helped a lot more.

There was just so much shit to before we left. A full 32 days away from home. The laundry, settling all bills before leaving, leaving the car with someone to start it occasionally. Who's gonna water the plant. Packing up, checking the checklist of stuff to bring over and over again...........